


Drained the Colour From My Wings

by ThornsOfWinter (SeedsOfWinter)



Series: A Small Demons AU [1]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: AU of an AU, Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Asexuality Spectrum, Aziraphale and Crowley Through The Ages (Good Omens), Demiromantic, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, He/Him Pronouns For Aziraphale (Good Omens), M/M, Macro/Micro, No Betas We Fall Like Crowley, Scene: Garden of Eden (Good Omens), Size Difference, Snake Crowley, They/Them Pronouns for Crowley (Good Omens), can be read as asexual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24788326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeedsOfWinter/pseuds/ThornsOfWinter
Summary: On a Garden wall, an angel and a demon meet for the first but not the last time. Only in this universe, demons are quite tiny. Adorable even. But still capable of getting up to all types of trouble.Asking the question: What if smol Crowley/regular Aziraphale?[Can be read as a stand-alone.]It was his first week on the job and already he’d ruined everything. Of all the duties Aziraphale had been assigned while stationed in Eden, he couldn’t have guessed that guarding the apple tree would be where it all went horribly wrong. And now his charges were out in the wider world, traipsing over scorching sand and heavy with child while opportunistic wild animals edged ever closer.He was certainly getting a demotion for all this.“Well,” said a reedy voice, “that went down like a lead balloon.”The angel glanced around, half expecting one of the archangels there to chastise him. But there was no one he could see. Aziraphale followed the sound of the voice and found, perched beside him on the white walls of Eden, a small black and red snake, no longer than the angel’s forearm and whipcord thin. They stared up at him with yellow-slitted eyes. Unblinking.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: A Small Demons AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1792909
Comments: 17
Kudos: 91





	Drained the Colour From My Wings

It was his first week on the job and already he’d ruined everything. Of all the duties Aziraphale had been assigned while stationed in Eden, he couldn’t have guessed that guarding the apple tree would be where it all went horribly wrong. And now his charges were out in the wider world, traipsing over scorching sand and heavy with child while opportunistic wild animals edged ever closer.

He was certainly getting a demotion for all this.

He knew he should have pushed harder for a team on the assignment. One angel? To guard the whole place? When he’d asked for assistance, he’d been laughed at. And instead of companions to make light the load, Aziraphale had been bestowed the title of Guardian of the Eastern Gate, as though Upper Management leaving open the possibility of ever needing a North, South, or West guard was sufficient response to his request.

“Well,” said a reedy voice, “that went down like a lead balloon.”

The angel glanced around, half expecting one of the archangels there to chastise him. But there was no one he could see. “E-excuse me?”

“I said,” the voice repeated from somewhere to his left, “that went down. Like a lead. Balloon.”

Aziraphale followed the sound of the voice and found, perched beside him on the white walls of Eden, a small black and red snake, no longer than the angel’s forearm and whipcord thin. They stared up at him with yellow-slitted eyes. Unblinking.

“Oh. Yes. Rather.” He tucked back his white wings and peered back below them. It was a far trip for a snake to make.

The animal slithered closer to the edge of the wall to watch Eve and Adam. “Bit of an over-reaction, if you ask me. First offence and everything,” they said with decided sympathy. “I can’t see what’s so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil, anyway.”

“H-how did you get up here, you little thing?”

The snake reared up, stretching their slim body.

The angel glared patiently. “You can’t expect me to believe you slithered all the way up here yourself. These walls are unscalable.”

“Of course not,” they hissed. “I caught a ride with _you_.”

Aziraphale gave a shocked noise. “You never! Oh, I will not abide these bold-faced lies.”

“Did too! When you were talking to them, the what-you-call-its. Humans? Yeah. Dropped right on the back of your robe. You didn’t even notice.” The snake, if possible, looked smug. Their forked tongue flickered with delight.

Aziraphale’s lips twitched between nervous laughter and genuine concern. “I think I would have noticed a snake clinging to my neck for dear life, thank you very much.”

“Oh, pish, I wasn’t a snake then. I _have_ hands, you know.” And to prove the fact, the snake began to transform. The slick black scales folded back from the square snout, becoming tiny grey-feathered wings. A scrap of clothing draped loosely over and around what was in fact, Aziraphale realized, a being that looked not so different from himself.

Except that, deep down, it was _nothing_ like him. He was an angel and this snake, it was… Well. If he hadn’t been so distraught, Aziraphale certainly should have recognized the subtle aura of a demon at first glance. Dreadful things, or so he’d been told. Though truthfully, this snakey one was the first he’d had the unpleasantness of encountering.

Miserably, he recognized that, where there was one, surely there were others. No doubt an infestation seized the Garden at that very moment, let in at the first sign of Eve’s temptation.

“You have your own wings, you know. Unless you’d forgotten,” Aziraphale said accusingly to hide his own embarrassment. Ridden by a demon, of all things. Just pouring salt on the wound that was the day?

The demon, slender like their snake form and with a head of considerably more springing red ringlets than was necessary, sneered as they folded their arms together. They grumbled something under their breath.

“Didn’t catch that, I’m afraid,” Aziraphale said, and considered if he might have just been cursed at.

“I said,” the demon hissed, annoyed to repeat themself, “that they don’t work!”

Aziraphale blinked several times.

The creature huffed and turned away. They leaned dramatically against the parapet of the wall, arms folded atop the stone to rest their head while they watched the mortals.

Looking at the little demon there, it occurred to Aziraphale that the low barrier would do nothing if _he_ were the one to fall from the wall: it was but a single block high and two thick, barely reaching his knees. And there was no sense in thinking one of the humans might ever reach this part of Eden without a proper chaperone.

Aziraphale worried at the golden ring on his right hand, twisting it ‘round his finger.

Not a lot of information circulated in the halls of Heaven regarding demons but, as the Guardian of the Eastern Gate, there had been warnings. Rejected by the Almighty, taken in by Her Fallen favorite, they’d mostly been laborers before the Great War. Now, they were mischief-makers extraordinaire bent on foiling any and all plans, Divine and mortal alike. The first pests, so to speak. It was as reasonable as not that the demon was telling the truth. But what they stood to gain from such a lie, Aziraphale could not surmise.

More to the point, however, he had been built to love all God’s creatures. Great _and small_.

Aziraphale stepped up onto the parapet.

“Oi! Angel! What are you on about?” The demon grabbed hold of the hem of his robe and began tugging, failing to pull him back from the edge. “You’ll fall!”

“Not to worry,” he said and, very carefully, mindful of his little companion, sat down with his wings draped back across the walk and bare feet dangling in the rising breeze. He smiled brightly. “There! Now we’re at a better spot, I’d think.”

The snake-demon studied him, unsure how far to extend their trust.

“If you’d like to sit beside me, I promise I won’t do anything to harm you.”

“Like push me off the wall, you mean? After I just told you my wings don’t work?”

“So sorry to hear it, too. They are quite lovely.”

The demon frowned. “You’re not just buttering me up so you can capture me? Bring me to your bosses, have a laugh?”

“Honestly, uh… Hmm. Do you have something you’d like me to call you?”

Their snake-split eyes showed clear surprise as they blinked, just once. Perhaps no one had ever asked them before. “They... call me _Crawley_.”

“Aziraphale,” the angel returned and gestured by way of a bow while sitting.

“Charmed,” said Crawley, and it seemed they meant it.

Now that they were closer and he was able to get a good look, Aziraphale wasn’t sure he would have guessed Crawley was a demon. They didn’t have any telltale signs his superiors had listed to look out for: they were not slimy or coated in mucous or anything else repulsive; they did not stink of brimstone or sulphur and may have even bathed recently judging from the luxurious state of their fiery curls. Admittedly, their simple dress was shabby and their wings could use some attention, but overall they were rather darling.

Aziraphale sighed. “I’m happy for the company, Crawley. It’s been, ah, well… a _trying_ day.”

“Nn-yeah,” they said, rueful, and hoisted themself up the stone to sit beside the angel with their scrawny legs tucked beneath them. “Lisssten, all he told me was to get up _here_ and make some trouble. You know, didn’t think it would be so obvious. Great big tree in the middle of a garden with a ‘don’t touch’ sign?”

Aziraphale gawked. Could all this have been their demonic work?

Crawley was talking still. “I mean, if They didn’t want it messed with, why not put it on top of a high mountain? Or _the moon_? Makes you wonder what God’s really planning.”

The angel fiddled with their ring. “Best not to speculate. It’s all part of the Great Plan.”

“The Great Plan?”

“Yes. Do they not… Do you not know about the Plan?”

Crawley shrugged one nearly bare shoulder, the muscles in their neck tightening. “Might’ve slept through that meeting.”

“Ahh. I don’t imagine you missed a lot. There isn’t much to tell. It’s…” Aziraphale pondered how to explain. The Almighty didn’t share the details with someone like him. He was doubtful anyone had the full picture but Her. Finally, the angel smirked. “It’s _ineffable_.”

“The Great Plan’s ineffable?” Crawley didn’t sound convinced.

Aziraphale wiggled his feet and toes, accidentally catching the demon’s attention. “Exactly! And you can’t second-guess ineffability. There’s Right. And there’s Wrong,” he said with all the conviction of an angel of his rank. “If you do Wrong when you’re told to do Right, you deserve to be punished. Er…”

The words slapped all further thought from his mind.

“Oh dear… I, uh, don’t like the look of that weather.”

Crawley’s attention ping-ponged out to the desert, back to the Garden, up to the sky, and then to Aziraphale once more. But on their final descent, the demon noticed a distinct absence.

Wide-eyed, they said, “You had a flaming sword.”

“Uhh.”

“You did,” Crawley said. “I saw it. Flaming like anything, it was. What happened?”

“I…” Aziraphale exhaled, long and slow. He’d been desperately trying not to think about the answer to that particular question, nor from which heavenly messenger it was likely to come from.

“Lost it already, have you?” Crawley nudged him with their elbow, poking him in the thigh through the soft fabric of his heavenly robes. “What was that?”

He snapped his attention to the demon at his side and cried, “I gave it away!”

Crawley reeled back, stunned to silence, as Aziraphale pointed to a distant spot on the horizon where the first humans--and possibly the last ones if that lion advancing on them had anything to say about it--ran hand in hand.

“They were so miserable and they didn’t have anything! And there are _vicious_ animals out there, Crawley! She-she’s expecting! So I said, here you go. Flaming sword. Don’t thank me. And don’t let the sun go down on you here.”

A smile spread like sunshine across the demon’s face. “Don’t have to explain yourself to me, angel.”

“I do hope I didn’t do the wrong thing.”

“Aww!” Crawley scooted closer to pat his hand, so much larger and softer than their own. “You’re an angel. I don’t think you _can_ do the wrong thing.”

“Oh. Oh, thank you! Thank you. It’s been bothering me.”

It wasn’t that Aziraphale hadn’t considered the possibility--ineffability and all that meant whatever he did, probably he was meant to do it, not having free will and the like--but it felt so good to hear someone... _anyone_ else confirm for him.

Even a tiny, grey-winged demon who’d probably lost him his job with their antics.

“I’ve been worried, too,” Crawley admitted with a glance over their shoulder to make certain no one was spying. “What if _I_ did the right thing with the whole eat-the-apple business? A demon can get in a lot of trouble with the big boss for doing the right thing.”

Overhead, thunder rumbled, spooking the demon.

Through nervous laughter, they said, “Be funny if we both got it wrong, eh? If I did the good thing and you did the bad one?”

Aziraphale began to chuckle, grateful for the amusing thought. Then he cut off when a meaty thud echoed across the sands from the direction of a human who had just used an angel’s flaming sword to kill another living creature.

Horrified, he said, “No! It wouldn’t be funny at all.”

Crawley shuffled, uncomfortable, and capped their cheerfulness. “Guess not.”

Lightning crackled, a new invention. And with it came another: rain. In fat droplets, a few to start, to test them out.

Aziraphale glanced skyward at the grey clouds which had gathered during his distraction. As the rain’s pace increased, instinctively, he raised one white wing to protect his companion on the wall.

Crawley marveled, first at the wing blocking the pelting drops and then at the angel. “Doing the right thing, are you?”

“It mustn’t be bad,” he reasoned. “But, uh, we should probably get to shelter. This seems like it’s going to be a big one.”

“ _We_ , huh?”

“I couldn’t possibly leave you up here to drown or get washed away, can I?”

“Can you?”

Aziraphale raised both wings then. “Do you only accept transport you seize for yourself? Or may I offer you assistance back down?”

“Mm. Nn. Fine.”

When Aziraphale extended a hand, Crawley shifted back to their smaller and more carryable form. They slithered past firm fingers and wrapped themself around the angel’s wrist and forearm before he tucked the demon close to his chest.

Neither could remember the last time they had touched another warm, living being.

Crawley shut their eyes and focused on the sound of the angel’s breathing over the storm. “Angel? What will happen to thisss place?”

Aziraphale turned his back to the desert and surveyed the Garden from on high. It had been a paradise, truly. Eve and Adam had wanted for nothing. Everything they could have ever wanted to survive lay within those walls.

But surviving was perhaps, he reasoned, not thriving. They could not grow beyond what this place had prepared for them. How much more waited for them beyond the safety of Eden? What surprises and dreams could they build? Heights to rival Heaven? How many other shackles might they cast off?

Aziraphale knew it wasn’t just the rain that streaked his face as he answered, “I do not know, dear.”

“And what about you?”

“I…” On his wrist, Crawley coiled tightly, the feeling a strange sort of comfort. Aziraphale straightened his spine and spread his wings. He stroked two fingers over the back of Crawley’s neck, smooth across the scales. “I will do the Right thing.”

At that, with a demon tucked close to his heart, the angel stepped from the safety of the Garden wall.

-END PART ONE-

**Author's Note:**

> Ratings in this series will increase up through Explicit over time if I continue. My continuing is directly proportional to how much encouragement flows my way, ngl.
> 
> Title from Queen's "My Fairy King" but this was written listening to the album QUEEN II on repeat. Go listen to it, especially "March of the Black Queen" and "Funny How Love Is".


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